Early Education on Wheels in the Philippines

Some villages supported by ChildFund and its local partners around the world are incredibly remote. Sometimes it is impossible to establish services like early childhood development (ECD) centres due to their isolated nature.

This is the case for four barangays (the Filipino term for small villages or neighbourhoods) in the Philippines. Located in Pili, in Bicol region on the southernmost tip of Luzon island, these villages are situated too far from established ECD centres. So, to support the infants and their families living in these villages ChildFund and its local partner organisation have begun using a mobile unit.

The Mobile Supervised Neighbourhood Play (SNP) initiative, which began its pilot phase last year, provides the materials, modules and learning tools found in ChildFund’s home-based ECD programs and packs them in a mini-van that can travel to remote communities.

Four trained volunteers conduct two-hour sessions twice a day, three times a week in the four barangays with children and their families. The volunteers are also helping to train parents and other caregivers, as well as people who could one day start ECD programs locally.

“Where there are government day care centres, ChildFund helps equip day care workers,” says Corazon Obra, program officer for ChildFund Philippines. “In communities isolated from day care centres, ChildFund is helping set up Supervised Neighbourhood Play, our home-based model. Mobile SNP takes this idea even further, literally delivering quality Early Childhood Development services to remote communities.”

This project is just one of the most recent ways ChildFund and its local partners are helping to support the healthy development of children under five all around the world.